Cloth-opening machine



May 19, 1931.v A.- BIRCH 1,805,866

CLOTH OPENINCI'IMACHINE Filed Jan. 30, 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet l v lnvenTor. A-\berT Birch ATTyS.

M y 1931. A. BIRCH 1,805,866

CLOTH OPENING MACHINE Filed Jan. '30, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 6 lnve'nTni A\brT Birch BYMMMW Anys.

May 19, 1931'.

A. BIRCH CLOT H OPENING MACHINE Filed Jan. 30, 1930 :5 Sheets-Sheet s Inven'for.

A\berr Birch b aemz Maw/TM Patented May 19, 1931 TATES UNITE ALBERT BIRCH, OF BELMONT, MASSACHUSETTS CLOTH-OPENING MACHINE Application filed January 30, 1930. Serial No. 424,712.

This invention relates to a machinefor opening cloth, especially wet cloth, and for extracting the moisture therefrom and the general object of the invention is to provide d a'novel device of this type having various features of importance all as will be more fully hereinafter set forth.

7 In order to give an understanding of the invention 1 have illustrated in the drawings 'T1- a selected embodiment thereof'which will "fir trating a machine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2is a top plan View;

Figs. 3 and 4 are longitudinal sectional views through the vacuum tube, said views being taken on substantially theline 3-3, g.

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55, F g. 4;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6, Fig. l;

Fig. 7 is a detail hereinafter referred to.

Themachine herein illustrated is adapted to take wet cloth as it comes from a dye, vat or any other bath, and to open said cloth into web formation and at the same time to extract the moisture from the opened cloth. The apparatus is shown as supported'on a suitable framework 1 which is herein illustrated as suspended from an overhead support 2. c

The cloth-opening feature of the invention comprises a triangular frame 3 having the two sides a and 5 which meet at the point 6, together with a belly-board 7 having a con-- vexly-curved edge 8.

r The triangular frame 3 is supported by the supporting frame at one end thereof and in a downwardly-inclined direction so that the point 6 of the frame is directed downwardly. The upper ends of the two arms 4 and 5 of the triangular frame are secured to the mam frame 1 and said triangularframe is braced by means of a strut or brace 9. Y

The cloth to'beopened, which is indicated 10, isdrawn upwardly over the point 6 of the triangular frame by means of rollers 21, 22, which will be presently referred to. As the :59 cloth, in more or less rope form, is drawn upwardly over the nose 6 the latter will enter between the folds of the cloth, and the inclined sides 4, 5 of the triangular frame will assist'in spreading the cloth. From the triangular frame the cloth passes over the con- 5 vex edge 8 of the belly-board 7 as shown in dotted lines Fig. 1 and the jointaction of the belly-board together with the triangular frame opens up the cloth so that it comes to the rollers 11 and 12 in substantially flatweblike condition.

The rollers 11 and 12 are of the usual type used in cloth-opening machines and have spiral ribs on their surfaces which serve to smooth the cloth and take out the wrinkles therefrom. These rolls are shown as mounted on two shafts 13 and 14 which are journalled in bearings 15 supported by the frame 1, the shafts being geared together as shown at 7 6 so that they both rotate in unison.

The cloth-opening rolls 11 and 12 are positively driven and for this purpose the shaft 14 has fast thereon a sprocket wheel which is connected by a sprocket chain 16 with a sprocket wheel on a driving shaft 17, the latter being driven from any suitable driving pulley 18. I

From the rolls 11 and 12 theopened cloth 31 passes over a vacuum extracting tube 19 and thence to a governor 20, both of which are supported by the main frame 1 and from the governor the cloth passes around a roll 21 on the driving shaft 17 and around another roll 22 and thence through the guide rolls 23 carried by oscillating cloth-laying arms 24, the latter being pivotally connected to the frame at 25 and being given its oscillation through crank disks-26 which is connected to the arm by links 27 as usual in cloth-laying or clothfolding mechanism. This crank disk 26 is mounted on a shaft 28 which is driven from v the shaft 17 by means of a sprocket chain 29.

The vacuum tube 19 is provided with a slot 30 extending longitudinally thereof at its upper side, said slot being'positioned so that the w opened cloth 31 passes over it. The tube is connected by a suitable connection 32 with an apparatus so that vacuum conditions will obtainwi'thin the tube. Asthe cloth is fed over the slot 30'the vacuum will draw the "V111 water or other fluid from the cloth into the tube from which it is drained in some suitable way.

In order that the vacuum may be effective it is, of course, necessary that the portions of the slot not covered by the cloth should be closed for otherwise the rush of air through the open portions of the slot will destroy the vacuum necessary for drawing the water or other fluid from the cloth.

Th means herein shown for closing the slot is automatic in its action and will automatically accommmodate itself to ditiierent widths of cloth and will also accommodate itself to any lateral motion which the cloth may have in traversing over the vacuum tube. The slot extends more than the full width of the cloth and at eachend of the slot 1 have provided a slot-closing member 33 which is in the form of a fin of a width to fill the slot. Each member 33 is pivotally mounted at 34 to a ring 35 which encircles the tube and which is situated outside of the edge of the cloth. Each slot-closing member is also pro vided with the inclined upper edge 36 and it is provided with the weighted end 37 situated beyond the pivot 34: and which acts to onnterweight said member and to normally nold it in substantially the position shown in Fig. 3.

The outer end 38 of each slotclosmg memher is curved on an arc struck from the p vot Set as a center, said curved edge fitting ilf'i'tlli'lSl) the end of the slot 30. Vhen the slot-closing 9 members are in the position shown in 11g. 0

thev close the slot 30 for substantially their full length and this is the position they would assume it a relatively narrow web of cloth were being acted on. If a wider piece of cloth is being treated, as shown in Fig. l, the engagement of the edges of the cloth with the inclined upper edges 36 of the slot-closing members will tilt the latter downwardly as shown in Fig. 4 thus uncovering and opening the slot 30 for the full width of the cloth. The portion of the slot which is outside the cloth, however, will be closed by the slot-closing members. These members thus automatically close the portions of the slot outside of thecloth whereby the cloth will be subjected to the full force of the vacuum w1thin the tube. Furthermore, if during the movement of the cloth over the tube it shifts from one side to the other the slot-closing members will automatically accommodate themselves to the changing position ot the cloth and will automatically keep the slot closed except where the cloth overlies 1t.

The governor 20 is designed to prevent the cloth from shifting laterally during its movement. This comprises a frame 39 ca two rolls 40, 41 supported on either side bar 4-2. The cloth passes under the rolls t and 41 and over the bar l2, the rolls belng so disposed relative to the bar that the cloth ha to bend up over the bar as shown in Fig. 1. The whole frame 20 is pivotally mounted centrally as shown at l3 to turn about a vertical axis situated at one side of the bar 4-2.

So long as the cloth is properly centered so that the axis 41-3 of the governor is in the center line of the cloth said governor will retain its normal position shown in Fig. 2 but it the cloth shifts laterally so that the center longitudinal line of the cloth is at one side or the other of the axis til then the cloth will produce a greater drag on one end of the governor than on the other and the latter will turn slightly, such turning movement being in a direction to cause the cloth to work back to its central position again. The governor thus automatically holds the cloth in its central position and prevents it vfrom working laterally.

In order to prevent the vacuum tube from becomin clogged in any way from the flock or lint which may be drawn into it I have provided a flushing device. This is shown in Fig. 7 a water pipe la which is led into the closed vacuum tube and by which water may be delivered there-to, the flow of water being controlled by a suitable valve 45. If there is any tendency for the tube to become clog '(l the valve 45 may be opened slightly thus furnishing suiiicieut water to flush the tube out.

lVhen cloth is being dyed or otherwise subjected to treatment involving dipping the cloth. in or passing it through a bath, it is the common practice to hold the cloth in rope form by a tacking thread which is sewed into the cloth by means of a so-called tacking machine. hen the cloth is opened this tacking thread has to be removed, such opera tion being commonly referred to as detacking.

One feature of my invention relates to a novel device for thus detacking the cloth as it is fed to the nose 6 of the cloth opener. This detacking mechanism comprises two rolls 46, 4:7 which may be driven in any suitable way and which operate to pull the tacking thread 48 from the cloth. The tacking thread is led over the roll 46 and then between the two rolls and the frictional pressure of the rolls on the thread is sufficient to withdraw it from the cloth.

it will be understood that the tacking ead is sewed. into the cloth with a chain tch so that it can be readily withdrawn. As herein shown the detaching roll 47 is driven from the shaft 17 through a medium of a belt 95 but it may be driven by any other well known means. I

96 indicates a splash board which is supported above the vacuum tube 19 and above the cloth 31 and which extends the length of the tube. This splash board is faced with felt 97 or other absorbent material and which operates first to prevent fluid being splashed n 1 (LE:

or thrown onto the cloth after it has passed over the vacuum tube 19. If the cloth is very wet there is likelihood that drops of fluid will be thrown from it as it is passing over the belly board and through the rollers 11, 12. The splash board prevents such drops of fluid from being thrown onto the cloth after it has been subjected to the vacuum action.

The fluid extracting apparatus herein illustrated is not restricted in its use to the machine herein shown but can be used in connection with any machine designed to handle wet cloth in the open width for the purpose of extracting moisture or fluid therefrom.

I claim 1. In a device of the class described, the combination with a supporting frame, of a triangular-shaped cloth-opening frame carried by the supporting frame andextending downwardly therefrom in an inclined direction, a belly-board at the base of the cloth-opening frame having a convex edge, means to draw the cloth to be opened upwardly over the triangular-shaped frame and belly-board, and detacking rollers for pulling a tacking thread from the cloth as it is fed to the cloth-opening frame.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with a supporting frame, of a triangular-shaped cloth-opening frame carried by the supporting frame and extending downwardly therefrom in an inclined direction, a belly-board at the base of the cloth opening frame having an convex edge, means to draw the cloth to be opened-upwardly over the triangular-shaped frame and bellyboard, meansto extract moisture from the cloth after it leaves the belly-board, and detacking rollers for pulling the tacking thread from the cloth as it is fed to the cloth-opening frame.

4. In a device of the class described, the

combination with means for drawing cloth forward, cloth-opening means acting on the cloth to open it, and means operating in timed relation with the forward movement of the cloth for pulling a tacking thread therefrom as it is being delivered to the cloth-opening means. I

5. In a device of the class described, the combination with means for drawing cloth forward, cloth-opening means acting on the cloth to open it, and means operated by the cloth-drawing means for pulling a tacking combination with cloth-opening means, of

drawing rolls acting on theopened cloth to V deliver it to the cloth-opening means, means actuated by the drawing rolls to pull a tacking thread from the cloth as it is delivered to the cloth-opening means, and means to extract moisture from the cloth after it leaves the cloth-opening means.

8. In a device of the class described, the combination with cloth-opening means. of drawing rolls acting onthe opened cloth to deliver it to the cloth-opening means, means actuated by the drawing rolls to pull a tacking thread from the cloth asit is delivered to the cloth-opening means, and means acting on the cloth between the cloth-opening means and the drawing rolls for extracting moisture from said cloth.

'In testimony whereof, I'have signed my name to this specification. 1

ALBERT BIRCH. 

